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By:
Besarte Elshani
- 28 January 2025 10:00
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“I had white cotton in the yard, I fed it, I watered it” by Albanian artists Endi Tupja and Klodiana Millona combines polyphonic singing with personal stories in the artists’ joint work. As part of the exhibition “What the song says…”, in the work of the duo Tupja and Millona, the song is sung by women from the Greek minority in the village of Dervican, near the Albanian border with Greece. The jury awarded it the “Gjon Mili” award
The work that celebrates Albanian tradition has won the prize of the 17th edition of the international exhibition of photography and moving images “Gjon Mili”. “I had white cotton in the yard, I fed it, I watered it” by Albanian artists, Endi Tupja and Klodiana Millona, combines polyphonic singing with personal narratives in the artists’ joint work.
As part of the exhibition "What the Song Says...", in the work of the duo Tupja and Millona, the song is sung by women from the Greek minority in the village of Dervican, near the Albanian border with Greece.
The judging jury, composed of Slovenian philosopher and artist Marina Gržinić, Greek art historian and curator Stamatis Schizakis, and professor of art history and painting Zef Paci from Albania, awarded the Prize for the work, which is considered to embody the tensions between language and ethnicity, and more.
"This work synthesizes the most critical elements of the exhibition's theme, expanding and strengthening the idea of power and visibility. The work embodies the tensions between belonging and not belonging, between language and ethnicity – issues deeply characteristic of the Balkan region. The jury was moved by the way the work addresses these themes in an engaged and sensitive manner. Combining documentary elements with the evocative performance of its subjects, the work transcends traditional boundaries, offering a powerful narrative of resistance and identity," the National Gallery of Kosovo said in a statement.
The work produced in 2023 is considered to have a strong feminist perspective.
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"What the song says..." through the time-defying tray
"The work's careful research and creative execution emphasize a powerful feminist perspective, interweaving personal stories alongside broader socio-political commentary," the statement reads.
The images from the duo's video convey the preservation of tradition and culture. The duo who curated the exhibition "What the Song Says...", which marked the traditional event "Gjon Mili" from the National Gallery of Kosovo - Valentine Umansky and Hana Halilaj - consider it an act of preserving traditions and a testament to sustainability.
“On the brink of permanent change, immigrants experience what Algerian-French sociologist Abdelmalek Sayad calls a life of ‘double absence,’ an intermediate state. The question of belonging crystallizes an experience of instability. In the film, the performers’ bodies are seen as the keepers of cultural memory and as channels that transmit it, reflecting a history of interrupted but also stable trajectories. The continuous act of preserving and reactivating these traditions becomes a testament to resilience and adaptation, allowing for new forms of togetherness,” reads the curatorial concept of the work by artists Tupja and Millona.
It explains that sound is the essence of the work "I had white cotton in the yard, I fed it, I watered it."
"Using the voices of women from the Greek minority in Dervican, a village near Albania's southern border with Greece, the artists trace the voice as a medium through the topography and materiality of sound. Through their filming, interviews, transcription and careful translation of sung texts, the work investigates how music and language are deeply embedded in a place, in migration and in the tension between movement and rootedness," it is written about the work.
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"What the song says..." through the time-defying tray
The Ukrainian curator, Umansky, had deliberately decided not to announce the winner on the same day as the exhibition opens. This was so that the public could enjoy the exhibition equally that day, as the GKK announced on Thursday when the institution's first exhibition for this year opened.
And the evaluation of the works is considered extremely challenging.
"The selection process began with the evaluation of portfolios and descriptions submitted through the open call. The jury then had the opportunity to experience the works at the National Gallery of Kosovo. This process was particularly challenging due to the exceptional quality of the thoughtful, beautiful and unique works that are presented in the exhibition," the National Gallery of Kosovo announced in a press release.
“What the Song Says...” showcases the work of 23 artists from the local and international scene. Its concept, curated by Valentine Umansky from London’s Tate Modern – in collaboration with GKK curator Hana Halilaj – is inspired by the traditional musical practice of tepsi. It immerses the audience in the stories of their ancestors, but also tells the story of women’s relentless efforts to find ways to accompany their singing with instruments that were once only accessible to men.
The exhibition is inspired by the work “Poçimalja” by Bosnian artist Lala Rashqiq, which the Gallery refers to as a “kinetic sculpture” made of copper, wood and electronic material that enables it to rotate. The sound of this rotation of the pan is also the “soundtrack” of the exhibition, while the very word with which the exhibition as a whole is named is the name for the initiator of the singing of the song.
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Liburn Jupolli immortalizes the testimony of a massacre survivor in sound
The international exhibition "Gjon Mili" has been reformatted this year - in addition to being an event dedicated to photography - also to the moving image. Another change this year was the internationalization of the event. This was the first edition where the call for artists was also for foreign ones.
The exhibition as a whole, with the winning work of the “Gjon Mili” award - “I had white cotton in the yard, I fed it, I watered it” by artists Endi Tupja and Klodiana Millona - can be seen at the National Gallery of Kosovo until March 30.
